transportation

Terrafugia, a developer of "roadable aircraft"--otherwise known as flying cars--released a scale model and computer-generated mockups of its redesigned "Transition" vehicle on Monday that the company says bring it a step closer, engineering-wise, to a deliverable product late next year.

The design tweaks, Terrafugia explained, were based on the results of a successful test flight last year at Plattsburgh International Airport in New York. Some of the improvements include a touch-screen cockpit interface and better-optimized wings with a new folding mechanism that helps them retract for road driving. It'll still run on gas station … Read more

Let's say you want to take public transportation to a meeting in the 'burbs, but your destination is about a mile away from the train station. Sure, you could call a cab, wait around for a bus, or break a sweat walking. But if you don't have the time to spare or don't want to wrangle with bus schedules that match up to train schedules, you might be tempted to scrap the whole plan and just drive.

That's the problem Treadways aim to solve.

Treadways are motorized shoe attachments that can be used as a last-mile transportation solution that you strap on where public transit drops you off. Designer Peter Treadway recently entered his personal mobility solution for the James Dyson Award (namesake of the famous vacuum cleaner reinventor), a competition for newly minted design engineers who have invented a product that solves a problem.

Less bulky than a skateboard and easier to transport than a bike, Treadways are ideal for covering longer walking distances. The advantage of motorized shoes over current portable transportation solutions such as scooters, Treadway says, is that you can easily carry Treadways with you and don't have to worry about locking them up or babysitting them all day. In fact, Treadway, who also designs a line of messenger bags, is working on a bag specifically designed to carry his motorized shoes. … Read more

Boeing has won a $1.7 billion contract from the Federal Aviation Administration to create the Next-Generation Air Transportation System.

One of the goals of the system, also known as NextGen, will be to update the current air traffic control system from its traditional radar-based tracking to one that uses a GPS-based technology called ADS-B, the company said Thursday. Such a move is designed to deliver greater accuracy and safety in managing the growing traffic in the skies. To help develop the new system, Boeing said it will rely on air traffic management models and simulations.

In addition, Boeing will … Read more

Car-sharing service Zipcar announced Tuesday that it has filed for an initial public offering estimated at $75 million; the move is designed to pay off debt as the venture-backed Cambridge, Mass.-based company, which is not profitable, aims to expand its footprint in cities and college campuses in the U.S., Canada, and the U.K.

A regulatory filing explains that Zipcar plans to trade on the Nasdaq Global Market under the symbol "ZIP."

Zipcar courts a young, urban, and tech-savvy audience through a notable Facebook and Twitter presence as well as an iPhone app with a horn-honking button. … Read more

Texas is about to become IBM's test subject for a series of telematics transportation technologies with the blessing the U.S. Department of Transportation.

IBM Chairman and CEO Sam Palmisano plans to announce the news in Houston on Wednesday at the 20th annual meeting of the Intelligent Transportation Society of America (ITSA 2010), along with U.S. Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood and Texas Transportation Institute Director Dennis Christiansen. The partnership between IBM and Texas will closely follow the federal intelligent transportation research agenda put forth by Secretary LaHood and the Obama administration.

LaHood announced Tuesday that the Department of Transportation is offering $775 million for transit agencies across the U.S. to upgrade their bus systems, … Read more

With major questions still unresolved about sudden acceleration incidents in Toyotas and other vehicles, Washington is turning to NASA engineers and the broader scientific community to examine everything from mechanical defects and human error to electronic controls and electromagnetic interference.

On Tuesday, U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood announced the start of two major investigations designed to look deeper into potential causes of unintended vehicle acceleration, which have been tied to a number of accidents, including some fatal ones. The issue has blown up into a major problem for the auto industry and for Toyota especially, leading to a massive … Read more

General Motors on Wednesday unveiled its Electric Networked-Vehicle (EN-V), a two-seater urban transport concept vehicle it's developing in conjunction with the Shanghai Automotive Industry Corp. (SAIC).

The EN-V is not intended for highway driving, but for what GM refers to as "personal urban transport," an idea already taken up by several companies and academic research groups. Many feel there's a need for "last mile" transport or gap transport, a means of transportation that covers the area between where public transport drops off and an exact final destination.

Walking is already the obvious solution in many cases. But in severe weather, when touting packages, or in cities lacking extensive public transport reach, people still tend to take a car over public transport. Providing another option could be the key to getting people to leave those cars outside the city.

The EN-V aims to offer a solution to city traffic congestion, parking, poor air quality, and affordability, according to GM. Using the same platform, the car could come in three distinct looks: the Jiao (Pride), Miao (Magic), and Xiao (Laugh).

The EN-V, which looks like a cross between a Smart Car and MIT's City Car, is actually a descendant of the Project PUMA (Personal Urban Mobility and Accessibility) that GM unveiled in April 2009. The PUMA is a two-wheel car built with Segway technology.… Read more

According to some data, 80 percent of the population in the United States lives in urban areas. For those of you not counting (ahem...me), that's about 243 million people, give or take a million. These same people contributed to the 10.7 billion trips taken on public transportation in 2008 alone. In short: there are a lot of freakin' people who take municipal transit. If you are one of them, pay attention.

All too often, commuters forget one very important word in public transportation: public. There are innumerable ways in which this lack of consideration for one's fellow humans can become aggravating, offensive, or downright disturbing. I would take great pleasure in airing them all here*, but as this is CNET, I'll stick to tech-related grievances. What follows are some general guidelines for using your gadgets on transit (or in the general public, for that matter).

DON'T talk loudly on your cell phone when riding mass transit. In fact, if you can avoid it, don't talk on it at all. With the exception of some admittedly curious bystanders, most people don't want to be made privy to the ins and outs of your life...especially if the conversation is of a particularly private nature. No one wants to hear you berate your mom for calling too often (true story), and we certainly don't need to hear the words: "Yeah, so the doctor said you should probably get tested, too" (also a true story). OK, so maybe there's a bit of humor to that last one, but really, people? Have you no shame? Oh, and if it wasn't already clear from this, DON'T use your speakerphone, either.… Read more

Net Transport is a powerful, comprehensive download management program. It comes with an FTP client called "FTP Transport," so you can use it to upload material to the Internet too. It does a lot, so much that it can overwhelm users.

Net Transport has a well-designed interface that is attractive and clean. The program and its companion FTP client have several useful features, such as handy options for both downloading and uploading. The trouble with Net Transport is figuring out how to use it. We've used a few FTP programs and downloaded a bit of software and … Read more